Monarchy depends on Prince Harry and Prince William making up amid Finding Freedom storm
Royal staff are desperately trying to contain the growing crisis between the Cambridges and Sussexes after Harry’s childhood friend reveals he ‘had doubts’ on Meghan from the start.
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Palace staffers are desperate to fix the growing PR disaster within the Royal Family and between Prince William and Prince Harry.
“We cannot have them at war,” one insider reportedly told royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
The feud between the once close brothers reportedly began when Prince Harry introduced his now wife Meghan Markle to the family, and has only increased since a biography detailing te Sussex’s split from the family, Finding Freedom, was announced.
Now, palace insiders fear that without a united front, the future of the monarchy could be on the line.
“We need to design a system to protect the monarchy full stop,” the source said prior to the now infamous Megxit, according to Page Six.
“The future of this monarchy relies solely on the four people currently in Kensington Palace. The public popularity only lies with them,” they said.
“When [Prince Charles] becomes king, the only way it lasts is if the four of them are not at war.”
Prince Charles, however, is said to be “in constant contact” with Prince Harry following his move to Los Angeles, where he and Markle are currently living with their one-year-old son, Archie.
“They have a very strong and close father-and-son relationship,” a source told The Sun.
“Many people have speculated that the book was the end for Harry and Meghan in Britain. Too many people were criticised and too many people attacked, including William and Kate. But the Prince of Wales has made it clear the door is always open.
“Since [Harry’s] move to Los Angeles they have been in regular contact. Charles is not an avid user of texts but there are video and phone calls … He has provided financial support, as any father would do when their son moves with a young family to the other side of the world,” the source said.
“Their relationship is rock-solid and they remain close. They speak at least once a week and Charles is still a massive driving force in Harry’s life.”
Scobie and Durand have also revealed that one of Prince Harry’s oldest friends, Tom Inskip, “had doubts” about Markle early on, and was “punished” by the Prince after he recommended the couple take things slow and live together before making major plans.
WILLIAM AND KATE TROLLED IN WALES
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were hilariously trolled by a pensioner during their visit to Wales, with a woman branding their bingo skills “bloody sh***y”.
Prince William and Kate Middleton visited Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff, after previously speaking with residents and staff on a video call in May.
At the time, Joan Drew-Smith, 87, had been left unimpressed the royals’ bingo skills during that video call, and she wasn’t afraid to tell them their game “wasn’t as good as it should have been”.
when she met Wills and Kate as part of their visit to Wales in person, she reminded them of their poor skills and said bluntly: “Yes, you did a bloody s****y job”.
The pair were said to have laughed after the brutal shutdown, which came after a rough few weeks for the pair with rumours of a rift with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle over Finding Freedom.
Despite the current global pandemic, the royals visited an amusement park in Wales on their visit to Barry Island, a Welsh resort location, to speak to local business owners about the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector.
They stopped off at Island Leisure amusement park where UK sit-com Gavin and Stacey was filmed, during their visit to Barry Island, South Wales, to speak to local business owners about the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector on August 5, 2020 in Barry, Wales.
The playground is one of the settings for popular BBC sitcom Gavin and Stacey with James Corden.
According to The Sun, William confessed to never having watched the 2007 show, which had three seasons.
“It’s one of the few box sets I haven’t already watched. I’ve never actually watched it,” Prince William said.
“But I know how much it has done for the economy here and it’s a wonderful series.”
William and Kate were visiting the amusement park as the owners Hilary and Andrew Phillips reopened the attractions for the first time since lockdown.
The royal couple were seen wearing masks during their visit of Wales, which also included meeting residents at an aged care home in Cardiff.
MEGHAN EDITED FROM WEBSITE
It comes as the Duchess of Sussex’s title and biography was edited on the British royal family’s websites, as Kate Middleton has been reportedly deeply upset by an explosive new biography.
Meghan Markle, 38, was stripped of her HRH title and had her charity and career achievements edited down to four paragraphs following “Megxit”, with her move to Los Angeles added in its place.
The former Suits actor is now referred to simply as “the Duchess” or “she” – not “HRH” as she had been previously – with her career achievements moved from her “about” page, to another section.
The official “About the Duchess of Sussex” section now states: “As announced in January, The Duke and Duchess have stepped back as senior members of The Royal Family.”
“They are balancing their time between the United Kingdom and North America,” the royal family’s official site explains.
Other references to Meghan’s use of social media (particularly, a line about “using the platform to discuss social issues”) has been removed, along with detail about her having lived in Canada while shooting Suits.
The site also deleted a sentence which had referred to Canada as a “second home” for Meghan.
Though a reference to Meghan’s former lifestyle blog The Tig remains: “Alongside her successful career as an actor, The Duchess also wrote and edited a lifestyle website called The Tig.”
KATE ‘DEVASTATED’ BY TELL-ALL
Kate Middleton has reportedly been left “devastated” by an explosive new biography about Prince Harry and Meghan, that laid bare the couple’s feud with the Cambridges, according to royal experts.
The Duchess of Cambridge, 38, is said to be “upset” by the bombshell bestseller, while conversations between brothers Harry and William are now “stilted and difficult.”
Finding Freedom, by royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, details the “rift” between the Cambridges and Sussexes.
Media reports out of the UK suggest the rift between Prince Harry and Prince William has “deeply affected” Kate and left her “upset”.
Royal expert Phil Dampier said that the explosive biography will do “little to heal the relationships” between the couples.
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“I’m told that the pair are speaking at the moment, but the conversations are stilted and difficult,” Mr Dampier said, according to reports.
Scobie said there is now ill-feeling between the couples, telling People magazine, “A lot of damage has been done.”
They are also divided by geography with the Cambridges currently living in Norfolk at Anmer Hall with their three children, and the Sussexes and son Archie in Los Angeles at Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry’s mansion.
MEGHAN’S ICE-BREAKER GIFT
While the couples are now barely on speaking terms, the book claims that Meghan and Kate initially hit it off.
Scobie and Durand say Meghan gifted the Duchess of Cambridge a notebook when they first met, to celebrate Kate’s birthday and help “break the ice”.
“Meghan bought a present for the Duchess, who had celebrated her birthday just a day earlier.
The soft leather Smythson notebook helped to break the ice, as did Meghan’s cooing over then 20-month-old Charlotte.”
Just 10 months after their initial meeting all continued to seem well as Meghan told the BBC in November 2017, that Prince Harry’s family had “been so welcoming.”
“The family has been great and over the past year and a half we’ve just had a really nice time getting to know them and progressively helping me feel a part of not just the institution but also part of the family, which has been really special,” she said.
But following a series of rumoured rows between Prince William and Prince Harry, and Meghan and Kate, the couples seem to be barely speaking.
Kate was pictured carrying a monogrammed Smythson folder in September 2019, but it is unknown if this was the same gift presented from Meghan.
MEGHAN REJECTED KATE’S PEACE OFFERING
The book also reveals Meghan Markle snubbed a peace offering of flowers from the Duchess of Cambridge.
The wife of Prince Harry was reportedly unimpressed with the gesture after relations between the royal pair hit its lowest point.
Reports in the media of the feud between the so-called “duelling duchesses” led to Catherine attempting to rectify the awkward situation by taking flowers to Meghan as an olive branch, Vanity Fair reports.
But Meghan told Catherine — who is accused in the soon-to-be-released book Finding Freedom of being cool and distant to her sister-in-law — that flowers were not enough, the magazine claims.
The report comes amid allegations that Prince Harry “had grown frustrated” with his father in the months leading up to Megxit, and believed Prince Charles cared about his image more than the welfare of his son and new bride.
“Increasingly, Harry had grown frustrated that he and Meghan often took a back seat to other family members,” a new extract from Finding Freedom, the book detailing the couple’s royal exit claims.
“While they both respected the hierarchy of the institution, it was difficult when they wanted to focus on a project and were told that a more senior ranking family member, be it Prince William or Prince Charles, had an initiative or tour being announced at the same time — so they would just have to wait,” the source said.
The Duke and Duchess were also said to be hurt at not being included among the photographs on the Queen’s desk during her annual Christmas address.
The couple, sources say, “had long been sidelined by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future”, but seeing Archie absent from the photographs was considered “yet another sign that they needed to consider their own path.”
The relationship between the usually close father and son was also reportedly further strained over the Sussex’s secrecy around creating their own website.
“[It] created a lot of ill will in the household, and especially in the family,” a source told Finding Freedom authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
HARRY WAS ‘IN A TRANCE’
The book claims that Prince Harry and the Suits actor knew they would be “a forever thing” on just their third date.
Their whirlwind romance began over a low-key beer and a martini at a London members’ club — and three hours later Harry “was in a trance”.
Scobie and Durand say the pair were “in their own little world” as they traded talk about making “change for good”, while sitting on plush “velvet club chairs”.
They did not kiss — and Harry left Soho’s Dean Street Townhouse alone to go home to Kensington Palace that night.
But just hours later, newly single Meghan declared to a girlfriend: “Do I sound crazy when I say this could have legs?”
Friends told authors of the book, serialised in The Times, the pair were smitten.
The biography, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family, reveals: “‘Almost immediately they were obsessed with each other,’ a friend said. ‘It was as if Harry was in a trance’.”
The Sun reports Harry and Meghan quickly made plans to meet again just 24 hours later, this time “for a romantic dinner” at the same venue.
The book reveals: “No front entrance for the pair. They were given directions for how to get into the building using a discreet door away from prying eyes — and familiar only to staff and delivery trucks bringing in produce and fresh fish from Billingsgate Market. A glamorous start, it was not.”
Just the one “trusted” waiter served them and the night ended “chastely” again.
But another friend told authors: “Harry knew they would be together at that point. She was ticking every box fast.”
Meghan had also begun to follow Harry’s @SpikeyMau5 Instagram account, the authors say.
A third evening saw Meghan get a cab from her hotel to Kensington Palace in secret, going through the visitors’ entrance. But such low-key meetings were ditched six weeks later when Harry told her to “arrive in London and he would handle the rest”.
The Prince, 35, and Meghan, 38, boarded a flight to Johannesburg the next morning and, after a switch to a private plane, arrived in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
The book notes: “They stayed for most of the trip in one of the $A2700 (£1500)-a-night deluxe tents.”
Pals tell the book Meghan “came back smiling and just completely spellbound”. They “would have happily spent the entire summer there together”, sources told the biography.
SECRETLY ENGAGED FOR MONTHS
Fresh revelations published via T he Sun also claim the Duke and Duchess were secretly engaged for three months before sharing the news with the public, reportedly sealing the deal on a trip to Botswana, and that Harry was “obsessed” with Meghan from their very first date.
“It was as if Harry was in a trance,” a friend said.
The couple’s official engagement story has always been that Prince Harry got down on one knee in the couple’s Kensington Palace apartment while the couple were roasting a chicken for dinner.
WILLS AND KATE HIT BACK
Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate Middleton have hit back at claims made in the explosive new biography that they shunned Markle, with friends saying they “rolled out the red carpet” for her and Prince Harry.
Finding Freedom, which is being serialised in The Times and The Sunday Times in London,
claims relations became so bitter that the Duchess of Cambridge snubbed Meghan during her farewell appearance as a senior royal, according to The Sun.
The book claims Meghan and Kate have never been friends. But, according to UK reports, close friends of Prince William and Kate said the couple had “done all they possibly could” to welcome her into the royal family.
According to friends, the Cambridges “welcomed Meghan with open arms” by inviting her to Anmer Hall, their family home in Norfolk.
Prince William and Kate also invited Meghan’s friends, bridesmaids and page boys to a party before her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018.
Kate also invited Meghan to accompany her to the royal box at Wimbledon for two successive years.
“It’s just completely wrong to suggest they didn’t talk and plain wrong to say the Cambridges weren’t welcoming,” said the friend, according to the reports.
“How can you say they weren’t warm or welcoming when they hosted Meghan for Christmas, invited her into their totally private inner sanctum at Anmer Hall and did everything they could to make her feel at home?
“They personally cooked her favourite vegan food, they couldn’t have been more welcoming.”
The book alleges the Duchess of Cambridge snubbed Meghan during the Sussex’s final royal engagement on Commonwealth Day.
“William and Kate sat with their backs to the couple, only turning around to chat with Prince Edward and Sophie, next to the Sussexes,” said a source.
“While Harry and Meghan both greeted William and Kate with smiles, the Cambridges showed little response.”
According to the book, the Duchess of Sussex was “disappointed” fellow royals never reached out to her or visited.
The new extracts reveal they had a number of tense and awkward moments, including one day when the women happened to cross paths at Kensington Palace in early 2017, when Harry and Meghan were still dating.
Both were heading out to go shopping on the same street but Kate went in her own Range Rover, the book claims.
HARRY FELT WILLIAM WAS A ‘SNOB’ TO MEGHAN
Prince Harry felt his brother Prince William was being a “snob” towards Meghan when he referred to the actor as “this girl”, according to the book.
The conversation was reportedly the key moment that led to the brothers’ rift, which ultimately tore apart the royal family.
Finding Freedom has exposed the conversation that made Prince Harry so angry he ditched his royal duties for good.
During the conversation, Prince William had reportedly asked his brother about whether he was sure he should marry the former Suits actor.
“Don’t feel you need to rush this,” Prince William told Prince Harry, according to sources. “Take as much time as you need to get to know this girl.”
Prince Harry, according to Scobie and Durand, was incensed at Prince William’s tone and the last two words — “this girl”.
“Harry was p****d off,” a source said in the book.
“P****d off that his brother would ask such a thing. Some felt it was an over-reaction. But then, this sums them up as people — William, the calm and rational one, and Harry, who can’t help but take things far too personally.”
Another friend added: “Harry could see through William’s words. He was being a snob.”
The book also reveals that a senior royal referred to Meghan as “Harry’s showgirl”.
The Sunday Times has previously reported that his grandfather Prince Philip, 99, had said that: “One steps out with actors, one doesn’t marry them.”
The divorced American came with “a lot of baggage”, according to a member of the royal family.
The book also claimed a high-ranking staffer was overheard telling a colleague: “There’s just something about her I don’t trust.”
Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, now live in California in a home belonging to Oprah Winfrey’s pal director Tyler Perry, with baby Archie.
They are about as far away as they possibly can be from Prince William, 38, and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, 38, even though they used to share Kensington Palace in central London.
The brothers’ relationship was strained when Meghan came on the scene, with sources in the book claiming that she was not welcomed into the family.
But there were claims that Prince William, who dated Catherine for a decade before they married in 2011, was wary of Meghan and the couple’s whirlwind romance.
“After all, these are two brothers that have spent their whole lives with people trying to take advantage of them,” the source said.
“They’ve both developed a radar to detect that type of person, but as William didn’t know a whole lot about Meghan, he wanted to make sure Harry wasn’t blindsided by lust.”
But some sources claimed that Prince Harry had overreacted to his brother’s genuine concern, and caution.
“Harry has a heart of gold, but he’s incredibly sensitive,” a longtime family friend said.
The distrust separated Prince Harry from his niece and nephews, even though they were living in the same grand home in London.
He stopped visiting Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, 5, so often and he has barely got to see Prince Louis, 2.
The book claimed that the invitations to visit the children, just across the hall, dried up from Prince William and Catherine.
And Prince Harry wanted to get away from his brother and the pressure of Kensington Palace.
“He wanted to get away from the goldfish bowl that was Kensington Palace,” a source said. “Everywhere you turn, you’re surrounded by staff and family. He was at a point in his life where he was working with his brother, doing the foundation with his brother and living by his brother. It was too much.”
The book has been claimed to have been briefed by friends of Prince Harry and Meghan.
His late mother Diana was the source of Andrew Morton’s 1992 book, which revealed Prince Charles was a cheater and she had an eating disorder.
Harry and Meghan have denied co-operating with Finding Freedom, although Mr Scobie was a longtime confidant of Meghan and often wrote articles sympathetic to her in Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
Prince Harry and Meghan announced in late 2018 they were moving to Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle where they would bring up their baby, who was due in mid- 2019.
The almost $5 million renovations caused negative headlines, but the move also isolated them from some of their friends, from whom they were already becoming distant.
However, the book claims that an often reported incident where Meghan brought the Duchess of Cambridge to tears during a dress fitting for the bridesmaids ahead of her royal wedding was false.
Meghan was reportedly disappointed that Catherine did not reach out to her more.
“At the outset of her romance with Harry, Meghan had fully expected Kate to reach out and give her the lie of the land on everything an outsider to the Firm needed to know,” the authors wrote.
“But that was not how things turned out. Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn’t losing sleep over it.”
Kate felt they didn’t have much in common “other than the fact that they lived at Kensington Palace”, a source said.
The book also claims that Meghan was subjected to racism in Britain, including in the way she was reported in the newspapers.
To explain that racism, it cited a headline that read: “Memo to Meghan: we Brits prefer true royalty to fashion royalty.”
Meghan, who turned over staff regularly, also complained about the way the departures were reported, including claims she sent 5am emails.
“If a man got up before dawn to work, he was applauded for his work ethic. If a woman did it, she was deemed difficult or “a b---h”,” the authors wrote.
“The double standard was exacerbated when it came to successful women of colour, often labelled demanding or aggressive.”
But the book claims that Meghan was the only woman for Prince Harry.
“He knew Meghan was right for him. Their love was real, and their feelings for each other were genuine. Everything else was noise,” the authors wrote.
According to The Sun, Harry and Meghan felt shunned and were at odds with palace courtiers over their plans for the future. Harry is said to have felt the courtiers didn’t like his new wife and were intentionally making her new life difficult.
In the book the ‘men in grey suits’ are referred to as “vipers”.
“As their popularity had grown, so did Harry and Meghan’s difficulty in understanding why so few inside the palace were looking out for their interests,” one of the released excerpts reads.
“They were a major draw for the royal family. Instead they had to take a back seat.
“Sometimes they would be told that their projects had to wait when the Prince of Wales or Prince William had an initiative or tour being announced at the same time.”
Meghan is said to have felt she would have a stronger voice in the world as a Royal but that didn’t eventuate. Meghan is said to also believe she was being mistreated.
“There are buckets of bitterness and resentment on the part of Meghan and Harry, dating from before and after the Megxit saga,” an insider told The Sun.
“They will see this book as a way of responding to their critics, inside and outside the palace walls.
“It will be dramatic and it will certainly not help relations with the Royal Family.
“For a modern couple like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, things were not moving quick enough. They wanted to walk their own path.”
Scobie and Durand, who have been referred to as ‘cheerleaders for the Sussexes’, have been working on the biography since 2018 and say they interviewed over 100 sources close to Harry and Meghan, reportedly with the couple’s blessing, a sign they wanted their side of the story heard.
“The senior courtiers, whom Diana used to refer to as men in grey suits, were concerned that the global interest in, and popularity of, the Sussexes needed to be reined in,” another excerpt reads.
The biographers quote Meghan as saying: “I gave up my entire life for this family. I was willing to do whatever it takes. But here we are. It’s very sad.”
The Queen was said to be “devastated” when informed of the pair’s intentions to leave, before the monarch ruled out a “half-in, half-out” situation.
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“Harry told a friend: ‘I don’t need that movie moment where we get out of a car and wave to hundreds of photographers before going into a building’”, according to the biography.
“It should just be about the work that’s happening inside. Let’s focus on what really matters.”
Relations between the departing couple and the rest of the Royals soured further following the announcement they were leaving.
According to the authors, Catherine “snubbed” Meghan at the Sussexes’ final royal engagement on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey in March. It was the low point of a relationship between the two which had been only one of “distant politeness” prior.
“Their cordial but distant rapport was apparent when they appeared with each other,” the book says.
“The state of affairs between them was just an offshoot of the real matter at hand — the conflict between Harry and the institution. Harry likened it to standing in front of a firing squad.”
Originally published as Monarchy depends on Prince Harry and Prince William making up amid Finding Freedom storm